Guatemala's ex-president says Mexican drug boss tried to bribe him
Guatemala's ex-president says Mexican drug boss tried to bribe him
Source: Reuters - Fri, 4 Sep 2015 21:26 GMT
By Enrique Pretel
GUATEMALA CITY, Sept 4 (Reuters) - Fighting graft accusations, Guatemala's former President Otto Perez said on Friday he could have made "10 or 15 times" the amount he is accused of stealing if he had taken bribes once offered him by powerful Mexican drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman.
Perez resigned as president of the Central American country on Thursday, and was jailed while a judge weighs charging him in a corruption scandal that sparked widespread protests and upended his government ahead of Sunday's presidential election.
Returning to court for his second day of hearings, Perez said Guzman tried to buy him off shortly after he was captured in Guatemala in 1993. Guzman spent almost a decade in a high security prison near the Mexican city of Guadalajara, before bribing guards to escape in 2001.
Perez, a 64-year-old retired army general, said he led the operation that resulted in Guzman's arrest over 20 years ago.
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